Robin Ellis

Marc Gayraud–my genial fishmonger in Castres market Tuesdays and Saturdays–was offering some medium size monkfish yesterday morning, at a reasonable price (18 euros the kilo–about $24 a kilo). These two pieces cost about 9 euros.

I’d been wanting to cook this lightly-spiced dish for ages–and it is relatively simple to do.

Vendu, monsieur! [Sold, sir!]

You can prepare the sauce beforehand and reheat it when you are ready to add the fish. That’s the beauty of it.

A little brown basmati rice and some seasonal green vegetable makes a pretty plate.

for 3

12oz/300gms monkfish (cleaned)—cut crosswise through the cartilage in bite size pieces [or other firm fleshed white fish]

3 tblspns olive oil

1 onion–chopped

2 cloves garlic–chopped

3 large tinned tomatoes–chopped

½ tsp cayenne pepper

½ tsp smoked paprika (pimenton)

sprigs of parsley and thyme and a bay leaf

1 glass dry white wine

1 tsp salt

10 juicy black olives–stoned and halved

• Soften the onion in the oil using a sauté pan large enough to hold the monkfish  –about five minutes.

• Add the garlic and cook a further three to four minutes.

• Add the chopped tomatoes with the spices, herbs and salt.

• Cook these gently for a couple of minutes.
• Add the wine and cook another couple of minutes.
• This makes the simple base in which to cook the fish.
• A  few minutes before you want to eat, reheat the sauce and add the olives.
• Slide the monkfish pieces into the sauce and cook on low heat, covered, for 5 to 10 minutes until the fish is opaque and you can’t wait any longer!

• Serve over basmati brown rice with perhaps some steamed broccoli on the side.